OKC BALLET, OKC PHILHARMONIC

& CANTERBURY CHORAL SOCIETY 

PRESENT MOZART’S REQUIEM

OKC Ballet dancer Anton Iakolev

in "Mozart's Requiem" 

By Nancy Condit

Three of Oklahoma City’s major arts agencies are collaborating to present Mozart’s Requiem for the first time in Oklahoma this Saturday, March 26 at 8 p, and Sunday, March 27 at 2 p. at the Civic Center Music Hall.  The OKC Philharmonic, the Canterbury Choral Society and the OKC Ballet will present the Requiem.

The final performances of the OKC Ballet will include a classic piece and a new work with multiple dance styles.

“Because the evening starts with Paquita Grand Pas Classique and then continues after an intermission into Mozart’s Requiem, the audience will see two distinctly different styles within one evening of dance,” wrote Mills to dance, art & okc.blogspot.com.

“Paquita showcases 17 of our company dancers in various pas de deux’s, pas de trios, and solo variations along with group dances.  Paquita is classical ballet from the Russian Imperial period that became popular in Russia during the mid half of the 19^th century.

“Within my Mozart’s Requiem, because the piece is nearly one hour, and because I often use different styles of movement to evoke different emotions, there are choreographic styles ranging from contemporary ballet to modern dance, including a section using aerial dance.”

The program begins with a classical, one-act ballet, Paquita Grand Pas Classique, choreographed by Marius Petipa, with scores by composers including Minkus, Drigo and Delibes.

Mozart’s Requiem evolved into a stage production under Robert Mills’ artistic direction after Dr. Randi von Eliefson, Canterbury Choral Society’s artistic director, was inspired, and approached Mills with the idea of a collaborative production with the OKC Philharmonic and the ballet.  The music is Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Requiem Mass in D Minor. The Canterbury Choral Society and the OKC Philharmonic will be directed by Eliefson.

 

 The work took Mills two years.

“Audiences can expect an exceptional moving performance that takes its inspiration not only from the Requiem’s actual, spoken work, to be sung by the Canterbury choir, but also from the idea that, during the process of writing the commissioned piece for the death of someone he didn’t know, Mozart was haunted by feelings of his own imminent death, which occurred before he completed the requiem.  Other composers later finished the piece,” Mills said in the press release.

Tickets are $29 to $54.  Information about purchasing them is online at www.okcballet.com.

c. by Nancy Condit